GC Profs At Gallery: A Preview
The Record, Goshen College
By Don Yost
October 1970
An Alaskan Indian poncho, a duck, and a computer? All served as inspiration for three artists whose work will be displayed in the 1970 Goshen College Faculty Art Exhibit. The exhibit, which opens Sunday, October 4, will feature the fabric prints and woven tapestries of Alta Hertzler, the ceramic work of Marvin Bartel, and the sculpture graphic prints, and painting of Abner Hershberger. Their entries will represent work done this year – a year that in each case has been one of intensive production. One may see in these entries, then, both the most recent thought and inspiration of each artist and current innovations in the art world at large.
Ghostly Hands
The most innovative work to be displayed by Professor Bartel combines three different methods of shaping clay – molding, throwing, and sculpturing “Pot Demonstration in Four Stages” is an almost surrealist comment about the process of art. Lids and vase forms exist as arms of the ghostly hands demonstrating the techniques of “throwing” forming a piece of clay with the use of a large spinning wheel.
Leap of Imagination
Bartel is concerned that his pieces flow. He works against a tendency ceramicists have to produce “careful, ” tedious pieces – pieces that look as if a machine could have done them. Finger rings (marks left by artists’ fingers during the throwing process) and crimped joints, for example, become a part of the beauty of a piece. This look of assuredness, of flow, will be displayed in pieces as diverse as “Tethered Duck” and “Fight Boys” – a tombstone dedicated to the integrity of insanity. The artist will also display glazes ranging from very textured salt glazes (good ol’ NaCl) to pristine porcelain glaze. A glass and stoneware table will be proof of “the leap of imagination” which Bartel expects will lead him on to create ceramic bathroom sinks and hanging fireplaces.
Diversity and Quality
Those who enjoy subtleties of texture will find the surfaces of the pieces on exhibit more than interesting. The extremely polished surface of porcelain is contrasted with stoneware’s look of eroded earth and cracked leather. Diversity and quality, then, will be the trademarks of the ceramic portion of the exhibit.